よみうち英語Read the classics by typingNotes Scene 14: The Hotel Affair
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Notes on this scene
Holmes reviews the hotel theft, the arrest of plumber John Horner, and the countess's determination to recover her jewel. The scene establishes this development clearly and closes before the next step begins, preserving the original passage's order and the limits of what the characters know at this point.
Japanese in this scene
- 彼に不利な証拠があまりに強いので
- In 彼に不利な証拠があまりに強いので, ので presents the preceding clause as the reason for what follows.
- 夫人の宝石箱からそれを盗み出したとして訴えられた
- In それを盗み出したとして訴えられた, clause + として reports the content of the accusation: Horner was charged as having stolen it.
- 財産の半分を手放してもいいと思っているほどなのだ
- In 財産の半分を手放してもいいと思っているほどなのだ, ほど sets the degree or extent expressed by the surrounding description.
- 伯爵夫人はあの宝石を取り戻せさえすれば
- In 宝石を取り戻せさえすれば, 〜さえすれば means ‘if only ….’ Recovering the jewel is presented as the one condition that matters.
Background
- the Assizes
- The Assizes were courts in which royal judges travelled around England to try serious criminal cases sent up from local magistrates.
Full text: original English and Japanese translation
"That is the reward, and I have reason to know that there are sentimental considerations in the background which would induce the Countess to part with half her fortune if she could but recover the gem."
「それが懸賞金だが、私の知るところでは、裏には情にからむ事情があって、伯爵夫人はあの宝石を取り戻せさえすれば、財産の半分を手放してもいいと思っているほどなのだ」
"It was lost, if I remember aright, at the Hotel Cosmopolitan," I remarked.
「たしか、なくなったのはホテル・コスモポリタンだったね」と私は言った。
"Precisely so, on December 22nd, just five days ago. John Horner, a plumber, was accused of having abstracted it from the lady's jewel-case. The evidence against him was so strong that the case has been referred to the Assizes. I have some account of the matter here, I believe." He rummaged amid his newspapers, glancing over the dates, until at last he smoothed one out, doubled it over, and read the following paragraph:
「そのとおり。12 月 22 日、ちょうど五日前のことだ。配管工のジョン・ホーナーが、夫人の宝石箱からそれを盗み出したとして訴えられた。彼に不利な証拠があまりに強いので、事件は巡回裁判に回されている。たしか、この件の記事がここにあったはずだ」彼は新聞の山をかき回し、日付に目を走らせていたが、やがて一枚を取り出してしわを伸ばし、二つに折って、次の一節を読み上げた。